


To Terms

by xanemarths



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken | Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Genre: ??? probably I think that tag covers it, Child Abuse, Coping, Gen, Past Child Abuse, vaguely implied transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 12:57:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4961488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanemarths/pseuds/xanemarths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes Marth a long time to recognize these things:</p>
<p>That his father hurt him in many ways;</p>
<p>That his father was not the decent man everyone claimed him to be;</p>
<p>That he is going to be all right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Terms

**Author's Note:**

> On the dot org Fire Emblem wiki it refers to Cornelius as a "fundamentally decent" man.
> 
> Ah, yes, a fundamentally decent man who hit his child on the face. Yes, absolutely decent, he 100% had a legitimate reason, ah, yes.
> 
> ...In other words I am angry and this was written as a way of getting that out.

He's a great king, a wonderful human being, the best father in all the world! There is none better in Altea, nor Archanea, nor anywhere else - he's simply the best there possibly is! If he seems cold, distant at times, refusing to indulge in simple child's play, he's busy with kingly duties, concerned for the welfare of his kingdom. It's not his fault that the young princess has to be alone, sometimes.

He's a king, and like all kings he needed a son. He needed a son, and the princess is the last child to be born. and her older sibling is a sister. It's only natural for a king, so excited over the possibility of a son, to be disappointed.

* * *

All parents yell at their children, right? He wants what's best for the young prince, who only just discovered that he was a prince, who's missed out on so many years of training he could have had in princely ways - he has to yell, has to get his point across, has to make the prince strong and tough for the years ahead when his father is no longer around, when the prince has to go to war, when the prince is alone.

It's only natural. He is still a good, loving father. He just wants his new son safe.

* * *

He didn't mean it. Of course he didn't mean it. He loves his son, so very much. He's just stressed, angry, frustrated; the prince's training has gone slower than anticipated, there's a new war starting to brew, and he needs to know that his son can hold his own in the days ahead.

The prince's cheek throbs, but it's only once. That's all it will ever be.

* * *

He deserves it he deserves it of course he deserves it he is a terrible son, the worst, he should have stayed a daughter rather than disgrace his father this way, everything hurts but he's not enough, he's never enough, he's too soft and gentle and everything a prince shouldn't be, and it's his fault that his entire body aches from bruises.

* * *

There is a strange emptiness, and then - relief. A flood of relief, and joy, so powerful that it brings a new wave of tears after having had to leave his sister behind, and the prince is thankful his knights are swifter than he upon their horseback; he does not wish them to see, to know that his tears are not of sorrow.

He must be a horrible son, to feel this way upon hearing that his father has been murdered.

* * *

_He loved me he loved me he loved me he had to have loved me he did it all for my own good he loved me I was a terrible son he loved me._

* * *

He was a wonderful king, a fundamentally decent human being, and a man who just didn't know how to father well. He has to show the dead respect, though, especially his dead father. After all, he was only doing what was best, wasn't he? He did what had to be done. The prince must acknowledge his goodness.

* * *

He was a good man.

* * *

He was fundamentally decent as a human being and a father.

* * *

He was.

* * *

He wasn't.

* * *

It's not the terror of Gharnef or Medeus, but it was there - his father hit his child. His father yelled things to lower his self-worth. His intentions may have been good, but then - evil things can be done with good intention.

No matter what all else seem to think, his father was terrible.

* * *

"I'm sorry - I'm sure he must have been wonderful-"

Marth cuts the new trainee off, quickly as he possibly can. "Please, Kris, don't be. Be sorry for the loss of life from the last war - but do not apologize for the loss of my father. For all his good, King Cornelius was a horrible father, to me - and I don't need to hear any more condolences."

He still flinches around older men, jumps at loud noises, cowers when he thinks someone is forming a fist at him - but to say it, now, is a relief, and of all people, he thinks Kris will understand.

"...I see. I'm sorry, I had no idea..."

The prince shrugs; it takes a moment to respond. "It's all right, Kris," he murmurs, scuffing the toe of his boot on the ground. "Neither did I, at first."


End file.
